Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto addresses a rally of up to 50,000 union members at May Day in the Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta. Photo: Michael Bachelard

Union leader Said Iqbal, a strict muslim, told a crowd of perhaps 50,000 manufacturing and metals union members at the Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta on Thursday: “May God make Prabowo president!”.

Mr Prabowo told the rally he had signed up to the 10-point list of union demands which includes compulsory pension insurance, eliminating outsourcing, and delivering free healthcare and cheap housing for workers and the poor.

He was the only presidential candidate to sign up to the list, Mr Said said.

The unions' endorsement could potentially deliver hundreds of thousands of votes to Mr Prabowo while also burnishing his credentials among Indonesia’s poor and working class.

Advertisement

But many union members were luke-warm about it. A number refused to applaud Mr Prabowo’s barnstorming stump speech about other countries mistreating Indonesia, about corruption and the “elites”. Coming from a man who gained his reputation in the military and as son-in-law of the corrupt Suharto family, and his millions through his family’s many business dealings, many of the audience were sceptical.

You will now receive updates fromBreaking News Alert

Breaking News Alert

Detractors say Mr Prabowo’s human rights record and his allegedly poor treatment of his own employees leads to concerns he is just pretending to take the side of the workers.

It’s widely believed that Mr Said, the president of the Federation of Metal Workers’ Unions (FSPMI), has been promised the position of minister for labour in a Prabowo government in return for his endorsement.

Asked about this after the May Day rally, Mr Said said, “to ensure progress on issues, it's natural for the ministry to be filled by someone from among labour activists”.

Asked if he himself was after the job he said: “We will see. A president gets to decide that.”

Mr Said has apparently told union officials in closed meetings that he has been guaranteed the ministry. He has also criticised Mr Prabowo’s rival, Mr Joko, universally known as Jokowi, as “anti-labour”.

In the past few years, Mr Said has developed a significant power base in a country where, in many industries, unions remain as they were under Suharto, supine servants of business and the state.

Through mass rallies and street campaigning, manufacturing unions have boosted the minimum manufacturing workers’ wage, though it remains a low 2.4 million rupiah (about $240) per month.

His campaigning has signed up 250,000 workers and he is also the president of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers (KSPI), one of a number of union peak bodies.